Paget firm in strife

PAGET engineering heavyweight HMG Westhill has gone into voluntary administration and must be sold off quickly if there's to be any hope of its survival.

The Westhill subsidiary of the Heavy Maintenance Group (HMG) had KordaMentha appointed on June 24, with the administrators moving in to help manage the company at its Paget base that afternoon.

In September last year, the company was expanding into a 15,000sq m workshop on Commercial Avenue but by late November, it became one of the first companies to cut staff, laying off 28 people as the financial crisis tightened its grip on the region.

The administrators will now sell the company as a whole, hopefully preserving all 200 staff in the process, but if that fails the company could be sold off as separate pieces.

The company has four bases: a workshop on David Muir Street, Slade Point; a giant “bucketshop” on Ron Searle Drive, near Mackay Harbour, which repairs mining buckets for BMA; an office in Mt Isa; and its massive workshop in Paget.

Westhill described itself as “one of the largest and most comprehensive heavy engineering companies in Central Queensland” after it joined with HMG in late 2007.

A Westhill spokesperson said the company was plagued by financial issues even as it expanded.

“Westhill has struggled to remain profitable over the past two years and has repeatedly needed financial support,” the spokesperson said.

“The decision to appoint an administrator had no implications for the rest of the group, which includes HMG Hardchrome and ATMR.”

The spokesperson for KordaMentha's administration of Westhill, who will sell off the business, said it was “business as usual” for the engineering firm, which has three bases in Mackay.

“This is a significant issue for Mackay,” he said.

“The best thing we can do is keep people in employment in Mackay.

“Staff are absolutely our number one priority; we've been talking to them a lot.

“They're a great bunch.”

KordaMentha has not announced a deadline for when the sale would go ahead but that it “would occur quickly”.

“We've issued a confidential information memorandum - it's the details of how we're selling the business,” he said.

“There has been specific interest in it, absolutely.

“There's no offer on the table yet. But that's what we're working towards.”

KordaMentha is now running the business alongside the usual management team but the spokesperson would not discuss how much Westhill owed creditors, nor specific reasons behind the administrator being appointed.

“It's a bit early to give real clarity on that, and we're not pointing fingers,” he said.

“It's unfair on everyone.”

Westhill is the second mining services company from the Mackay region to enter administration, following HMP Constructions which faced similar troubles in early April this year.